Who am I?

Sanjeev Sabhlok

Email: sabhlok@gmail.com

I joined the IAS in 1982 and worked in various capacities, such as Professor of Management at the Lal Bahadur National Academy of Administration and Commissioner and Secretary to the Government in the State Government of Meghalaya. However, since February 1998, my focus has been on bringing essential governance reforms to India. I finally decided to take the political route and resigned in January 2001 and left India, after my first (failed) attempt to form a liberal party.

Since then I have worked in the Victorian Government in Melbourne in various capacities, including over the last 11 years as an economist in the Department of Treasury and Finance. (I have a doctorate in economics from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles – in addition to various management qualifications).

My thesis is that Indian governments have failed to understand the skewed incentives of India’s governance system. We need far more liberalisation, but without fundamental governance reforms, economic reforms cannot succeed.

I was fortunate that finally, a few years ago, I helped form India’s only (classical) liberal party, Swarna Bharat Party. (Please refer to my April 2017 Times of India article regarding the party – and also this one, of July 2017.) My detailed message and arguments are found in my 2008 book, Breaking Free of Nehru (download here) – the book is highly commended by Gurcharan Das, author of India Unbound. (He has also, earlier this year, joined Swarna Bharat Party.)

I wrote a detailed article on bureaucratic system reforms in India’s Cabinet Secretariat newsletter. I also published a shorter article on the topic in Times of India(here). And have written on electoral reforms in The Wire (here).

India’s economic future remains bleak without such reforms. Our governance system is close to the world’s worst. With such a system we can do nothing to uplift India.

More details

I was an Indian bureaucrat

I joined the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) in September 1982. In that role I held many senior executive positions in the public sector such as the District Magistrate of Dhubri, Professor of Management (Deputy Director) at the National Academy of Administration, and Secretary to the Governments of Assam and Meghalaya.

Now I’m a political philosopher and Indian politician

My role in the Indian bureaucracy gave me an inside understanding of our governance system through close interaction with India’s bureaucratic and political elite. As I studied the issues further, including through further academic study, it became clear to me that India’s failures of governance arise from bad policy. It is not poor implementation that causes India’s problems – for bad policy can NEVER be implemented “properly” in the first place. Bad policy that is to blame for at least 99% our governance failures. That is a key insight that most ‘educated’ Indians still don’t have.

In February 1998 I concluded that our bad policies can’t (and won’t) be changed by our existing political or bureaucratic leaders. I therefore needed to join (or form) a (classical) national liberal political party and become a part of apolitical alternative to transform India’s governance using evidence-based world-best policies.

Since then I have worked towards the reform of India’s governance from the “outside” – as a politician.

I’m not a typical politician but a political philosopher and politician nevertheless – focused entirely on forming government in India. I am convinced that no existing political formation or leader provides India with the kind of viable solution that I do. I am therefore determined to work with you to reform India.

But you may well ask in bewilderment: “But how can you be (or become) an Indian politician when you are not even an Indian citizen?” I agree that you have good reason to ask this! For late in 2005, after three failed attempts to form a liberal political opposition [see this, for instance], I decided that given the lack of interest among Indians for good governance I should quit this ambition and take Australian citizenship.

However, I soon also took Overseas Indian citizenship which entitles me to “recover” my Indian citizenship within one year, should – in my lifetime – India actually want to become a modern, ethically governed prosperous nation.

In late 2007 I revived the political strategy with a revised platform (Freedom Team). Should I receive CLEAR signals that India needs me, I will return to India, resume my Indian citizenship, and contest elections. The window of time for that is now rapidly shrinking, however: just another ten or fifteen years remain, outside of which I will not be able to (physically) participate in the political process in India.

Why do I matter (to you)?

What I bring is critically important foryour survivaland success in India. I offer the ONLY viable solution to India’s pathetic mis-governance (Breaking Free of Nehru).

All other alternatives have failed – and will fail. Socialism, colonial bureaucracies, communalism: none can succeed. Other alternative efforts – including those of Baba Ramdev (or even JP of Lok Satta), that don’t focus SOLELY on increasing freedom (subject to accountability) – could well create more problems for India than they (may) solve.

It is therefore in your interest to join hands with me – with the Swarna Bharat Party, whose leaders offer India a truly modern governance system. Please support SBP in every way that you can.

More about me

Almost everything about me is publicly available. For instance, you can find out more about me here. My educational and career history is detailed here (on Linkedin).